Robert Salvatelli has made an impact on Leominster Massachusetts in his last seventy-four years of living there. He has been involved in many different organizations such as teaching, being a principal, being on the city council, and starting an organization called “Karens Closet” which donates supplies to the less fortunate. While being a part of all these great things, he still managed the time to raise a wonderful family.

Being one hundred percent Italian, one can already tell what kind of personality my grandfather has. His loud voice and strong opinion has shaped him into the revolutionary man that he is today.

He has been on the city council for the last sixteen years and is wrapping up his last one now. He had made many accomplishments in his time that have helped the city improve. One of the projects that he is most proud of is being a part of the purchase of over 1000 acres of land for different recreation activities that anyone can use.

Salvatelli also had the opportunity to Chair the Finance committee, which he explained as a “powerful” position that would make the recommendations to the city. He contributed to the building of a new library and schools for the children.

Most people would wonder what accomplishment he would be most proud of. His answer was that “I am very proud to represent my family in the community”. Salvatelli was also on the city council with his brother John Salvatelli.

“I am very proud that my family can represent the city in this way.” He said with a smile on his face.

Salvatelli’s wife Linda was also very proud of him. Being married to Robert for fifty years, Linda learned a lot about the city. She understood that he made a commitment to represent the city and she has been nothing but supportive of him the last sixteen years.

“Bobby has learned a lot about how the city works and what needs to be changed. He has become more of an independent man from this experience,” Linda said. They have both learned to appreciate every little thing that goes into making the city so wonderful.

Robert Salvatelli’s daughter Karen Mammone is also very supportive of his involvement. She has watched him over the years become more educated with how the city runs.

She said “if my dad was never on the city council I would not have had such a big interest in politics or the city that we live in. I now appreciate how the city runs and I understand the problems that need to be fixed to make it a better place.” She explains, “My dad has always loved to help people in any way that he can. I think being on the city council was something he loved because of how many people he helped at once.”

Robert said, “I have learned a lot about the city. I learned the valuable lessons about how a city runs and how it deals with a certain budget. After many years I would have to say that most importantly, I learned how to become a trustworthy person. In order to continue to get elected for sixteen years people need to trust you. This experience shaped me into a more trustworthy person and I think that it what I can take away most.”

April was slowly coming to an end. It was a cool spring day; I was sitting around the round dinner table with my family. The everlasting question came up once again.

“Kase, you need to make a decision, where do you want to go to school?” my parents asked for about the 300th time. We needed to send in a deposit so I was cutting it kind of close.

I was given a piece of lined paper and a blue pen. My body filled with confusion. Why did my parents give me this paper? They looked at me expecting me to know what they wanted me to do.

“What is this for?” I asked.

“Make a pro and con list about the schools you are deciding between, time is running out.” My dad answered me, he had those wrinkles on his face when he raised his eyebrows, I knew he meant business.

I had a short list of four schools that I needed to pick from. I had gotten accepted to everywhere that I applied so that made it a little harder. When I was applying to schools I knew that I wanted to get away from Leominster. I did not want to be anywhere near that place. I needed a new start, new friends, and no parents around. So with my pen and paper in hand, I began to write.

I made a chart that consisted of Bridgewater State, Fitchburg State, Westfield State, and Franklin Pierce. Each section was broken into two columns, one was pros and one was cons.

I started with Bridgewater I learned that the teaching program was really good. I thought that it was the perfect distance from my house, about an hour and a half; I could go home whenever I wanted to and I could live there too. It looked like a nice campus and I could see myself living there.

Next was Fitchburg. It was really close to my house, about ten minuets, so it wouldn’t be that logical to live there, the teaching program was awesome, the campus was pretty, but I really wanted that “college life” experience. I didn’t think that Fitchburg would be able to provide that for me.

Westfield state was pretty far for my liking at about two hours away from my house. The campus was nice but I didn’t really hear much about the teaching program. There was not really anything to do around campus. I felt kind of stranded.

Franklin Pierce was really nice but I thought that it was small. The teaching program was not that great. It didn’t make sense to pay out-of-state tuition for that school.

From my list I had concluded that Bridgewater State would be the best fit for me at that point in time. The answer was pretty clear, my body let out a sigh of relief. I finally knew where I would be going to school. I would finally have an answer when people asked where I was going to go.

As I have grown up I have really started to understand the meaning of hard work. Many different experiences have led me to believe how hard work really pays off. The most important experience is the one that shaped me into who I am today.

I remember walking into the first day of field hockey tryouts in August of freshman year. I had worked hard all summer in order to get in shape and try to learn the sport of field hockey. I decided to try out for being a goalie.

When I saw my name on the freshman team list, I felt a little disappointment. I wanted to be on JV not the typical freshman team. As the season went on, the coach pulled me aside and said that they needed me for the JV team. I was extremely nervous but this was my chance. I did really well that game. They kept me on both the JV and freshman team. Now I had an opportunity to get better and work my way up varsity.

The next summer I attended camps and clinics that would make me a better goalie. August came back around and my name was on the varsity list as a sophomore. I was so excited. I had finally understood what hard work meant. I learned that if you keep working at a goal you would achieve it.

The article “Sam Hunt: a Former College Football Star is Making over Country Music” by Nick Murry, is an informative article about how Sam Hunt became famous in the musical industry. The author has a tone that he uses to make the article informative.

Murry shows specific examples about how Sam Hunt had to overcome many different challenges to achieve his goal of becoming a singer. The article is informative because it tells about his career and what he did to get to where he is today. He says that while Sam Hunt attended University of Alabama he never saw himself as a musician, which gives the audience an idea about who he is.

Sam Hunt was a star quarterback at Alabama. He said that he just bought a guitar to “kill some time” during the summer. He never had any intentions of becoming so successful. Murry is showing how his music career started. No one else on the football team was interested in music as much as Sam Hunt was. He felt distant from the football team.

The personality of this article is very upbeat. There is nothing that would make anyone sad or upset. It tells about how his career became successful not about the set backs that he experienced. It stands out because it tells about how Sam Hunt transformed from a star football player to a star musician.

This article keeps the audience engaged because it informs us about his success. When the article was finished it leaves you with the impression of how much of a hard worker Sam Hunt is. It shows how he does not give up even when things do not go his way.

Murry writes this article in a way to inform the audience about Sam Hunt. He uses different examples varying from quotes that Sam Hunt said, to his personal experiences leading him to become an artist. The reader gets a better understanding of the article when examples are added to the text.

The author uses quotations that Sam Hunt had said. In the last paragraph he is describing his goals. He says “You want to stand out and be unique and do something different” that ties the whole article together. It is a strong statement that explains Sam Hunt and the tone of the whole article. The voice and personality is both upbeat and close. It made the audience feel like they were having a conversation with Sam Hunt.

Murry, Nick. “Sam Hunt: a Former College Football Star is Making Over Country Mucic” Rolling Stone 26 February 2015: 1-12 Print.

Writing is not something that I have ever been good at. In the past month at college, I have been taking a class called writing rhetorically. During this class I have learned new strategies to improve my writing and made myself more confident with people reading my work.

During my writing class we have had a couple assignments and so far they all have been different. Our first assignment was a professional biography. My process included creating an outline of what I wanted to say. I find that makes it easier to create the paper.

Our next assignment was about Lady Gaga and how she appealed to both young and old audiences. That was not hard because we had it right in front of us and we were able to look back at the text. We had to use specific examples to prove our point.

The most recent paper that we had was about an experience that shaped us into the writer that we are today. I found that easy to write about but it was hard to go back and pick a specific moment in time. I had finally come up with a point in time that went back to sophomore year in creative writing.

My papers have not been very strong so I didn’t appreciate anything that I spent time writing on. I didn’t get that good of grades on my papers. I never fully understood what to write about. This class changed that so far, I have gotten decent grades on my papers. I have enjoyed how some of the topics were about us and not research.

It is easier for me to write about myself instead of having a subject that I need to research about. I really disliked writing about Lady Gaga because it was such a short passage it was hard to meet the length requirement. The only information that I had on Lady Gaga was the article that was given to us.

Our class has been taught some important things about writing. In class we mostly go over revising which helps us when it comes to writing our papers. Now when I am writing, I think about what other people see and not just what I see. I now know what to look for when I am reading other peoples work. I learned to revise as a reader not a teacher.

I have completed these assignments by researching about the topic. I then make an outline in both my head first then I transfer it onto paper. I have realized that making an outline is really helpful and makes my writing more clear.

My gaps in my work usually occur when I don’t completely understand the topic that we have to write about. I learned that I could go to the professor for further clarification. Also I can try different organizers and see what ones work better for me. Also I will take the advice given during peer revision groups and apply it to my own work.

I did not think that writing rhetorically would end up being a class that I do not mind going to. Besides the time consuming prompts that we get every week, this class has helped me a lot with growing into a successful writer. I have overcome my hard time in writing. I have gained more confidence in my work and I hope to continue growing as a writer.

Writing never really came that easy to me. Every class it was the same thing, a basic five-paragraph essay with an introduction, three main points, and a conclusion. I never had the chance to get creative with it. It was all just basic facts that I had to write about with my opinion, which was never really that interesting or different than anyone else’s.

Every assignment I asked myself the same questions. “How was I supposed to make this sound good enough for a passing grade? How was I supposed to make it long enough? What is the prompt even asking me?” All of these questions ran through my head when a paper was assigned. I never felt comfortable with my people reading my papers or if I had to present it to the class. I just never felt that it would ever be good enough.

Sophomore year of high school I began to realize that writing wasn’t all that bad. I had this really different teacher; Mr. Lane, he never really had any rules. Anything was fine for him as long as you did it. He taught my creative writing class. At the beginning of the semester I thought I was in for an awful time. As the semester went on I started to think that writing wasn’t all that bad.

My teacher had this really weird way of doing things. He would give us a topic to write about but that’s about it. There were never any guidelines or specifications that we needed to follow. I was a little nervous at first but then I started to get the hang of things. It all started to tie together.

Over the course of the semester we did a lot of different activities to think of ideas that wouldn’t normally come into our mind. I remember one where we had to write down a list of things that we did like and a list of things that we did not enjoy that much. It was really interesting to see what other people had in common with you. Whenever we got stuck on a subject to write about he would tell us to use the list. We used that the whole semester and it always helped.

As we started to get more into the year I began to gain more confidence. I ended up sharing some of my papers to the class, letting other people read it and help me edit it, and I didn’t really care what I wrote about. I was able to learn new skills that I could apply to other classes. I started to enjoy writing. It was never those dreaded five paragraph essays that no one liked, he allowed us to have fun with our work and get to know what kind of pieces we enjoy to write.

In ‘Lavish Worlds and the headwear to Match’, Jon Pareles uses many different techniques such as creative word choices and descriptive writing to grab the attention of both young and old audiences who are interested in music.

Pareles starts off the text by using a verity of different words to describe Lady Gaga’s performance at Radio City. He uses select words such as “thumping, strobing, and razzle-dazzle”(Pareles 18). He wants to convince people how uplifting her shows are. By using theses fun words Jon Pareles is hoping to grab the attention of young readers. It targets young people because the word choice is not very extreme. You do not need any type of background to understand what this is about.

Pareles also targets older people in this text. He makes references to older people such as David Bowie and Madonna. By comparing how both Bowle and Madonna are alike with Lady Gaga he hopes to gain more fans for her.

Jon Pareles describes Lady Gaga’s costumes as skimpy and glittery. As that targets most young teenagers, it also grabs the attention of young men.

This text is a very visual piece of work. Her costumes and headwear were described in detail. She has gone from wearing Egyptian-deity golden armor, antlers, and chauffer hat, and a black hood. Her headpieces had nothing to do with her actual songs. Her clothing is flashy and unusual. She has worn many different things ranging from glittery and short to even a meat costume.

The writer Jon Parales is writing for many reasons. He wants to persuade the reader to understand how great Lady Gaga is. He shows us that Lady Gaga also helps out the community around her. He said “her stage persona veered from kindly-urging fellow misfits to follow their dreams, announcing that procedes from her January 24 show would be donated to Haiti relief” (Pareles 19). He wants to explain to us how she is talented in many ways. She was nominated for a Grammy; she has a strong enough voice for a cappella singing, and she knows how to play piano.

People would be interested in this article if they wanted to lean more about Lady Gaga. They would learn about her background, style of music and talent. They would understand how she is as a person. Lady Gaga does not care what others think of her.

This piece of writing by Jon Pareles is considered an informative piece. Throughout the whole article he continues to explain Lady Gaga’s success and life style. He shows how she is not like everyone else but that she is her own person.